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Retell is a platform for building, testing, and deploying AI phone agents that hold natural conversations over the phone. This quickstart takes you from a new account to a live agent you can call, in about 15 minutes.
1

Create your account

  1. Visit the Retell Dashboard
  2. Sign up for a new account
2

Create a new agent

  1. Navigate to the “Agents” tab
  2. Click “Create an agent”
  3. Choose a template
Create agent dialog: pick a Single prompt or Conversational flow type, then choose a template such as Receptionist or Multilingual Agent.
3

Test your agent

  1. Click the “Test” button to start a web call with your agent
Agent editor with the prompt on the left and the 'Test your agent' panel on the right; the Test button is highlighted.
4

Add your payment method

  1. Before buying a phone number, you need to add a payment method to your account
  2. Go to the “Billing” tab and click “Change payment methods”
Billing tab showing payment methods section
Payment method configuration dialog
5

Deploy to a phone number

  1. Go to the “Phone Numbers” tab
  2. Click “Buy New Number”
  3. (Optional) Enter the area code you want to buy the number for
  4. Purchase your number
  5. Assign your agent to the number in the configuration settings
Phone numbers dashboard showing number configuration options
6

Test your phone agent

  1. Incoming Calls:
    • Dial your purchased number
  2. Outbound Calls:
    • Click “Make an outbound call”
    • Enter the phone number including the country code (e.g., +12137774445)
Congratulations! Your agent is now live. It can:
  • Receive incoming calls
  • Make outbound calls
  • Handle natural conversations 24/7

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Next steps

Now that your agent works, keep going:

Customize Your Agent

Learn prompt engineering techniques to improve your agent’s responses

Add Functions

Integrate APIs and external services into your agent

Monitor Performance

Track call metrics and analyze agent performance

Production Best Practices

Ensure reliability and optimize for production use